


Language Barrier

by c0cunt



Series: c0cunt's minifics [2]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: ASL interpreter!Sasha, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, American Sign Language, Deaf!Jean, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 11:25:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5705923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c0cunt/pseuds/c0cunt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren tries so hard to talk to Jean directly.  It doesn't work as planned.<br/>Prompt:  EreJean, when words aren't enough</p><p>Originally posted <a href="http://c0cunt.tumblr.com/post/137059435315">here</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Language Barrier

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> In high school, I took ASL as my language requirement. I've done my best from memory to write in the correct syntax for the language, but it has been almost five years since high school. If something seems off, or incorrect, please let me know so I can fix it!

    Eren hated the notebook Jean carried around.  It was a crutch, when Sasha wasn’t around to help the conversation along, a comfort to everyone that didn’t bother to learn his language.  Or to help those who couldn’t focus enough to learn his language, which was Eren’s case, and that’s why he hated it.  Words were hard enough for Eren to get out of his mouth properly, but to put meaning into the shapes his hands could make?  It was an uphill struggle, their entire relationship was an uphill struggle, mostly written or facilitated by Sasha’s whispered translations and nimble hands.  And Eren hated that he couldn’t have a single goddamn private conversation with Jean, because of his own lacking abilities.

 

    Which is how Eren ended up sitting in the front of a classroom with an incredibly short tempered instructor, without telling any of his friends.  Class was three times a week, and Eren jumped at the opportunity for study sessions and any office hours, his own frustration obvious to those around him.  His instructor stood next to him after receiving the paper with his practical exam results, the large red C on top doing little to improve Eren’s mood.  His low morale sunk even more when his instructor signed to him the equivalent of “You should take a different language, ASL isn’t for everyone.”

 

   But Eren _needed_ to.  He didn’t want to go through Sasha, or write it down, or even worse, just speak loudly and exaggerate his words so Jean could attempt to read his lips.  He wanted to speak to Jean _directly_ , in _his_ language.  And his need to do so only increased as Jean would moodily sigh and sign dejectedly the morning after a pitiful first date.  Even with how quickly Jean’s hands moved, obviously not wanting to linger on how badly it had gone, Eren was able to easily translate it to himself almost as fast as Sasha did.  “He left when he saw my hearing aids”, or “after I asked him to speak slower so I could see what he was saying, he ditched me”, and Sasha’s sugar-coated translations just pissed Eren off almost as much as his uncooperative hands.

 

   After spectacularly failing his ASL course, Eren finally figured it was now or never.  Ask Jean out on a date, properly, or just resign himself to watching his friend and crush eventually find someone who would click with him.  Hesitantly, Eren invited Jean over for after-finals celebratory pizza and Mario Kart, an excited whoop and fist pump almost dampened when he read over Jean’s text of “ _sure, sash + I will be there”._ Well...It was at least something, and Eren could always ask Sash if she’d go do something else in another room when Eren asked.

 

   But of course nothing that night could go Eren’s way.  As he hesitantly practiced the signs he wanted to present Jean with (want date with me (eyebrows up, he reminded himself, it was a yes or no question)), Eren accidentally let the goddamn pizzas burn, setting off the dorm’s fire alarms.  Which had meant finding a last minute relocation, after a severe talking-to by the unfairly attractive fire chief who had come to sort everything out, to Connie’s apartment.  Connie then inviting everyone else to celebrate the end of finals, collecting $5 from each person ($15 from Eren) to pay for delivery.  And it just...

 

   By the time it was approaching 11pm, Eren found himself sulking on the front stoop of Connie’s apartment building, hands unconsciously moving in the same pattern he had been practicing for hours beforehand, and grumbling about his shitty luck.  Only when someone behind him cleared their throat did Eren knock himself out of his head, and realize that there was a surprisingly large amount of light encircling him and the person who had joined him.  Squinting up almost directly into the light shining down on them, Eren didn’t stop his hands moving until he realized that the person in front of him was none other than Jean motherfucking Kirschstein, his eyes wide as he watched Eren’s hands flutter to a stop.

 

   Both of them were frozen, blinking like deer in headlights, before Jean shook himself out of whatever surprise he was in, lifting his own hands.  He hesitated slightly, hands slowly carving out “that meant for me?”

    Eren couldn’t stop himself from nodding immediately, biting his lip as his hands shakily motioned out “I try”...Fuck, he couldn’t remember the sign for learn.  Clumsily, he forced his fingers to spell out the word, knowing his face was redder than a goddamn stop sign, before tacking on “for you” at the end of his shittily formed sentence.  Fucking hell, this wasn’t how Eren imagined asking Jean out.  In his mind’s eye, he could see himself signing fluidly, impressing Jean with his sentence structure and hand shape, an enthusiastic yes the only way the situation could end.  But no, his hands couldn’t even fucking form the alphabet correctly half the time, and Eren readied himself for a mocking laugh.

 

   A laugh that didn’t come; what did come though, was exactly as Eren had imagined asking Jean out would end, with enthusiastic nodding and a slightly off-sounding “yes!”   Then there was loud cheering from above, the bright light that had surrounded them both shaking slightly before disappearing, leaving them shrouded in shadows.  Almost without thought, Eren pulled Jean closer to the hazy streetlamp’s light, not wanting to literally and figuratively leave him in the dark if they were going to keep talking.  Jean just smiled broadly, before clasping Eren’s hand in his and turning on his heel, away from the light and Connie’s apartment with a wave.

 

 

From:  Jean          Time: 11:06pm

when and where? 


End file.
